i thought this comment from coinlock debating aminok on Reddit was interesting:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2qtdxi/thoughts_on_sidechains_by_lukas_ryan/cn9zpi7

[–]coinlock 2 points an hour ago

Please, just concisely explain why having a pegged asset is better than one that is priced by the market for two things that are not equivalent in any way.

    nd you're making up an excuse to call it something else to make it sound like it's just another altcoin with no special characteristics that make it better for the Bitcoin ecosystem

That is exactly what it is. The special characteristic you define is not necessarily beneficial to bitcoin.

    Side chains meanwhile have the same beneficial effect on scaling, but WITHOUT the inflation. It's blindingly obvious that this is good for the Bitcoin ecosystem.

What inflation? Having multiple alt coins is not inflation if they have different utility or features and are thus different. Side chains preserve digital scarcity, but are not equivalent, and over time unfairly priced one way or the other by definition.

    (without introducing the inflationary effect of fragmenting market share across altcoins) by splitting the load of bitcoin and bitcoin-backed currency transactions across multiple blockchains

Why is it desirable to split the load amongst bitcoin-backed currencies? If we want to increase the bitcoin network by a factor of 5 we need to run 4 other side chains. For these chains to be equivalent we would need the same number of peers, and the same cumulative hashing power as the main network, which equals the total amount of power and space we would need to proportionally scale a single chain already. So in that sense we are not scaling up so much as designing a load shedding system.

    Sidechain functionality would undoubtedly be of huge benefit to the Bitcoin ecosystem

I have a doubt. Anyone who has been paying attention should also.

    That is not what's being proposed!

The road to hell and good intentions and all that. If I was playing devil's advocate I would say that you couldn't design a more perfect backdoor into bitcoin if you were trying to build a migration path away from the existing technology.

    Use of sidechains would be 100% voluntary

Until it isn't? For example when you need a sidechain network to accomplish a specific task, in a certain jurisdiction? It seems to me that if I was building a premium network that ran alongside bitcoin, a sidechain would be a great way to do it, like taking the highway instead of the side streets. Since sidechains don't restrict fees I don't see why I couldn't charge whatever I wanted if you needed it badly enough.

    It would increase the freedom and optionality of Bitcoin users in every way

Right now you can take your bitcoin and trade it anywhere for anything, this lets you trade it at a rate determined by a third party into a chain potentially controlled by an organization or government, or pretty much anyone else. So I'm not sure why you say this is helping Bitcoin freedom when it could easily be subverted.

    competing against altcoins with innovative new features (a competitive risk you handwave away, inexplicably

Competing alt coins aren't a competitive risk. If someone does come up with something truly better we will sell bitcoin and everyone will move, thats life. The same thing would happen in a side chain economy. With bitcoin's network effect and hash power lead that seems unlikely. Alt coins are the boogeyman in the room come to steal our bitcoins and dilute our network value.

Listen, we don't agree, but I'm not spreading FUD. There are potential ramifications to this change that haven't been addressed, and a lot of commercial interest to push it through. I would like to see the pitch deck that got blockstream 21 million, I bet it includes some interesting ideas as to how to monetize separate and distinct side chains.

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[–]cypherdoc2 1 point 21 minutes ago*

    I would like to see the pitch deck that got blockstream 21 million, I bet it includes some interesting ideas as to how to monetize separate and distinct side chains.

great point. i would too. courtesy of GMaxwell, CEO.